Brock council looks to hamlets for growth

With development in much of Brock limited by provincial legislation and a lack of sewer capacity, township council is looking to three hamlets for growth.
According to planning consultant Valerie Cranmer, the Township is permitted to "round out" development in hamlets in an effort to conform to the Province's Greenbelt Act.
"The Greenbelt does allow the minor rounding out of hamlets but this can only be done once and for limited development," she told councillors at a special planning committee meeting Monday night (Nov. 26).
The Township is looking to earmark land in Gamebridge, Sonya and Manilla for future development but residents in those areas shouldn't expect any sort of building boom, Ms Cranmer noted.
"We're looking at something between 12 to 20 lots in each of those hamlets," she said.
"Two of the hamlets (Wlfird and Port Bolster) don't have the potential to develop any further due to adjacent environmental features."
Ms Cranmer said that while the Greenbelt Act "handcuffs" the municipality from allowing development in rural areas, growth in the three villages (Beaverton, Cannington and Sunderland) is limited by infrastructure limitations.
"Before the Greenbelt came into effect, 50 per cent of the growth in Brock Township was in the rural areas. That's no longer permitted under the legislation," she said.
"There's no sewage capacity in Cannington and there's only been limited growth there for some time. In Sunderland, all of the sewer capacity has already been allocated."
The proposed expansion area for Gamebridge lies south of Regional Road 50.
Development in the other two has been targeted along Simcoe Street, south of the baseball diamonds in Manilla and south of existing development in Sonya.
Noting that the municipality has received no applications for any of the proposed development lands, Brock CAO/Clerk Thom Gettinby said that the plan must receive the blessing of both regional council and the provincial government.
And all future development would be subject to further study.
"The Province is looking at this very closely. They're the final arbiter of what limited growth means," he said.
"It's a question of how much development is acceptable."
While some of the residents who turned out for the session voiced concerns over the impact the potential development could have on wells, particularly in Manilla and Gamebridge, most seemed pleased with the plans.
"We need some way to broaden the tax base here," said Paul Issac.

Scott Howard is editor of the Brock Citizen. He can be reached via email at showard@mykawartha.com